Tuesday, January 27, 2015

It is shocking to hear of the sad
demise of R.K.Laxman , the celebrity
cartoonist albeit at a ripe old age of 94. In essence he was the voice of the common
man.His cartoon strip “You said it !”
adorned the pages of “Times of India “for more than half a century .The papergained popularity due also toLaxman’scartoonsapart fromhigh quality editorialsand well
written articlesthat the paper carried.
Fearless as he was, no one, howsoever high and mighty could escape his sharp
eye and wit . In fact he held a mirror to the political class of the times The late Jawahar Lal Nehru personally complimented Laxman by making a telephone call, whenpost1962 war with China, his cartoon featuring Nehru, obviously not in a favourable
light appeared in TOI. That speaks volumes for
bothgreat personalities .

Friday, January 23, 2015

Come winter, and I am remindedofwhat life was like inwintersinShimla ofsixties and seventies.Schools and colleges had long vacationsandmostly students were free spirits , as they had nothing to doafter being promoted to the next class having passed the annual exam held in December.
Only students who had to appear in Matric
and Higher Secondary Exams in Marchfelt burdened
with studies , quite a few of themalso attendingextra classesfor better results. To the Collegiate,
studies posed no such burden, as exams were heldtowards the end of March or early April. My
motherensured that each one of us
siblings had a couple of hand wovensweaters and two pairs each of woolen socksduring the winters.

Once during one such winter, as a college going student , I decided not to wear any sweater or socks , much to the
annoyance of my mother , who tried hard to cajole me into wearing the woolens, alreadyin place for me. But adamant as I was, I
spent the entire winterwearing shirt
and pajamas. Surprisingly, I had no cold or cough during the entire season , though I had swollen feetwhich used to itch badly at night. That shows
I had enough resistance as a teenager . Now
on the threshold of old age(?), I always have
to wearwoolen socks anda jacket in addition to the sweaterand thermal wearto keep myself warm .

Monday, January 19, 2015

Every Monday I am drawn to the weekly
column ‘Vignettes’ byShriniwas Joshi, in ‘The Tribune’. This time
he has written aboutCol. Sher Jung , a multifacetedpersonality and forgotten hero from District Sirmour of
Himachal Pradesh.A patriot and a freedom fighter, as also a writerwho rubbedshoulders with the great revolutionary Bhagat Singh and literary giants likeAgyeya , he waslucky enough that his death sentence was commuted tolife imprisonment underBritish rule .Thetitle of
Colonel was conferred upon him by Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru in recognition of his
services rendered before and after independence. I havenot yet gone through the Book edited by Mr. Shakti Singh Chandel, which is
the source ofMr. Joshi’s write up,
butam confidentthat it would be immensely readable, as 'The Tribune' carriedexcerpts from this book
in September2007, in one of its Sunday
editions , which were quite absorbing .

It may not be out of place to
mention here that Sher Jung’s grandson,Samaresh Jung is an aceshooterwho along with his
shooter wife, Anuja Jung has brought laurels
to the country and the statewith a rich
haul of Gold, Silver and Bronze medalsin various national and International events like the Commonwealth
games.

Monday, January 12, 2015

This week, i.e. today, in his column ‘Vignettes ‘ in ‘The Tribune’
, Shriniwas Joshi has discussed two flowers – Narcissus and
Chrysenthamum- as being impervious to the onslaught of Winter, as
also the myrhological story behind Narcissus. Not surprisingly, a
person ‘sick of self love’ -to use Shakespearean phrase –is called
Narcissistic, and the phenomenon itself is called Narcissism .In Hindi
it is called आत्म-मुग्धता. I am reminded of the days in sixties , when
some enterprising farmers from the adjoining villages of Shimla used to
carry Kilta loads of Narcissus or Nargis flower on bus top to Delhi
to earn that extra penny as Delhi was a potential market for flowers,
when floriculture had not taken off in a big way like now. I did not
understand the economics of this venture, taking into account the
expenses involved in 3-4 days’ stay at Delhi and to & fro bus fare.
In any case, the flower smells nice and with long stem and white petals
with a yellow cup in the middle is a visual treat. I am baffled by the
Urdu couplet : “हज़ारों साल नर्गिस अपनी बेनूरी पे रोती है, बड़ी मुश्किल से होता है चमन में दीदावर पैदा “ -meaning there are few takers for Nargis, which fact the flower itself laments.

Monday, January 5, 2015

One of the many thingsI look forwardtois“Vignettes”, the weekly columnby Shriniwas Joshi, which nowappears in ‘The Tribune’ everyMonday. Today , it carries the sad news
ofthe demise of Dr. G.R Sud, to
whomMr. Joshi haspaid glowing tributesas a theatre personality. I had the
privilegeof beinghis student in H.P. University campus from!973to 1975 .I fondly remember
the very first day he came to teach us. As we introduced ourselves in the
class, when a fellow student also carrying the initials GR , spelt out his full
name, it drew gigglesfromthe girl studentswith an urban background. The fellow wasa bit embarrassedbut Dr. Sud made light of the moment sayingthat he too had a funny name. We nevertried to find out his full name as for us he remainedGRor
Dr.GR, or Dr. Faustus – the name
endearinglysticking to him as he
taught usMarlowe’s Doctor Faustus in
the first semester. A noble man indeed,very down to earthand no high flyingintellectual!

The fact of his being a theater personalitywas never revealedfor thetwo yearperiodI stayed at the university
, asDr.Sud , simple as he was,never
worehisachievements on his sleeves.For us he was a teacher who taught and
taught well Many years later I readabout
this aspect of his personality, in the Hindi magazine ‘Vipasha’. Mr. Joshihas written at lengthabout him in the column as well .In hind
sight, I remember, his peculiar way ofuttering dialogues and reciting poetry lines while teaching , which had something to do
with his drama direction .He had ablissfully longlife .